In the mid 80's, I was on a team out of Mississippi called the warmongers. That was a time when playing fields had built bamboo cities, bunkers, playing areas measured in miles, and teams invited to national competition were based on ability and play.

The national paintball competition they play today as seen on television, running behind air filled bags, and firing hundreds of balls, hoping to get lucky, is a joke of what it once was. Yes, it much easier to televise a set playing area with cameras at every angle. And that's hard to do in the middle of the woods. But now I see new paint ball businesses pop up, and are just fields with bags and 55 gallon drums. What a joke.

I'm sure it is still fun. It's just changed so much from the days of crawling in swamps, ambushing from behind an ant hill, and actually coming out of the field covered in mud, sweat, and paint.

I remember the time I showed up with a new Sheridan shotgun with an extended barrel which gave me a distinct advantage over shorter barrel pistols. And even that upgrade was seen as a negative. But within a few years, we were playing corporate sponsored teams with claymore mines, hand grenades, full air tanks strapped to their backs with tanks holding hundreds of balls, and rapid fire equipment. I knew at that time, it would change the basic tactics, strategy, and the overall game. After the national competition outside Knoxville in 86-87, I got out of it.

Here is me and my shotgun on a course in Missiissippi (1986)... (sorry for the blur, it's a picture of a picture)

I have about 10-15 friends that play every other weekend in the spring/summer. and occasionally in the winter and fall. I do have to ask though, the whole "frozen paintball" thing. I have heard from people that its like getting hit with a steel ball and from others who say they become more brittle and less painful. Any experience with that?

I never played in cold weather. At least nothing near freezing. It seems the paint balls today are smaller than of years past. So I could not comment on the "sting" of today. I do however have several round scars on my arms as I liked to play with only a tanktop on somedays.